Banking, healthcare stocks help equity indices end in green

Last hour buying in banking, healthcare and auto stocks lifted the key equity indices after a largely choppy trade on Friday.

Broadly positive European markets also supported the Indian indices, analysts said.

At 3.30 p.m., the wider Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) provisionally closed at 10,821.85 points, up 80.75 points or 0.75 per cent from the previous close of 10,741.10 points.

Similarly, the barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which had opened at 35,428.42 points, closed (3.30 p.m.) at 35,689.60 points (3.30 p.m.) -- up 257.21 points or 0.73 per cent -- from its previous session's close of 35,432.39 points.

The Sensex touched an intra-day high of 35,741.26 and a low of 35,344.49 points. The BSE market breadth, however, was bearish with 1,411 declines and 1,167 advances.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), HDFC, Axis Bank and State Bank of India whereas Reliance Industries, Wipro, Coal India, Tata Consultancy Services and ONGC were the major losers.

On the NSE, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Pharma and M&M were the highest gainers while Reliance Industries, Hindustan Petroleum and UPL lost the most.

--IANS

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